The consumers of luxury fashion often exude an air of elitism and belonging at fashion shows. Yet few of the guests at Chanel’s cruise collection show were blasé about the setting: the gardens and fountains of the Palais de Versailles. Like tourists, they snapped pictures of the palace at sunset, statues around the lawn and water cascading down an amphitheater.

To kick off the evening, designer Karl Lagerfeld showed a Marie Antoinette-inspired collection of tweed palazzo pants, pale denim pedal pushers and dresses with exaggerated hip bustles, accessorized with chokers. In a wink to France’s executed queen, many of the models wore tiny interlocking c’s—Chanel’s logo—under the eye as a beauty mark.

About Heard on the Runway

Heard on the Runway provides news about the fashion and retail worlds, as well as fresh analysis and dispatches from the bi-annual fashion shows in New York, Milan and Paris. For complete style coverage, go to WSJ.com/Fashion.